1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to recording devices such as printers and more particularly to an arrangement for determining the location and character of a recording medium within such a recording device.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to employ a media detection sensor to determine if a sheet of recording media has been successfully picked from an automatic sheet feed, if media has been loaded into a manual sheet feed, and to provide an indication when the end of a media sheet is approaching primary media feed rolls. It is also known to employ a reflective or other type optical sensor to detect whether print medium is on a platen. Such optical sensing systems are relatively expensive, complex and subject to failure or false indications.
The present invention provides a technique for confirming proper positioning of a recording medium such as a sheet of paper within a printer printzone.
The invention comprises, in one form thereof, an inkjet printer having a printzone closely adjacent a printhead and a pair of electrical contacts which open in response to a sheet of recording media entering the printzone and close in response to the sheet of recording media departing the printzone.
An advantage of the present invention is that printing directly onto the platen or other printer components is avoided.
Another advantage of the present invention is the presence of media in a printzone may be inexpensively and reliably detected and this presence signaled to an electronic controller, thereby eliminating certain printer failure modes.
A further advantage is that a recording medium characteristic, such as the transverse dimension, may be automatically estimated and the estimate utilized to control the extent of carriage travel.